Inner West Council: MP claims Anthony Albanese, mayor picked CEO
A political storm is continuing to rage in Sydney’s inner west which has now engulfed federal opposition leader Anthony Albanese. Claims have been aired under parliamentary privilege singling out the Labor leader and his former staffer’s conduct.
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An upper house MP has used parliamentary privilege to air a raft of misconduct claims surrounding the Inner West Council, alleging federal opposition leader Anthony Albanese “hand-picked” its CEO.
Scott Farlow yesterday made a number of claims in the Legislative Council about Mr Albanese, Inner West mayor Darcy Byrne and the appointment of the council’s controversial CEO Michael Deegan.
Cr Byrne is a former staffer to Mr Albanese, who has held the inner west seat of Grayndler since the 1990s.
Mr Albanese also previously appointed Mr Deegan as the head of Infrastructure Australia when he was Transport Minister and it’s understood the pair have had a decades-long association.
Speculation has been brewing for more than a year behind closed doors at council about the trio’s connection and how Mr Deegan was appointed.
A few months after he landed the Inner West Council job the South Australian Ombudsman made findings that Mr Deegan had committed misconduct while working for the state Labor government there.
Those findings have been the subject of months of infighting over what to do at the council since they emerged.
Mr Deegan has also worked for two former Labor MPs in NSW, where he was sacked in 2003, and a Victorian Labor Premier.
He was referred to NSW Police and of Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions by the Royal Commission into Trade Union Governance and Corruption over a $100,000 payment he authorised to the CFMEU while overseeing the Epping to Chatswood rail project.
Mr Deegan was given the CEO role at Inner West Council in February 2019.
“Darcy Byrne likes to refer to the Inner West Council as the people’s republic of the inner west but if we scratch beneath the surface we will see that this is no people’s republic but Anthony Albanese’s republic of the inner west,” Scott Farlow said in the Upper House on Tuesday.
“The CEO of the Inner West Council, Michael Deegan, was hand‑picked by Mayor Darcy Byrne and his former boss, the Federal MP Anthony Albanese.”
It is understood the appointment and recruitment process was reported to the Independent Commission Against Corruption who referred it to the Office of Local Government.
Mr Farlow’s speech comes a day after Mayor Darcy Byrne gave testimony to a parliamentary inquiry into the distribution of $250 million worth of state government grants he described as “a slush fund”.
“I’ve never heard of Scott Farlow before but it’s sad that the Premier has sent her henchman out to attack me,” Darcy Byrne said.
“All we are asking for is the return of the $24 million the people of the inner west were cheated out of through the Liberal Party’s slush fund.”
Just days before he gave evidence Cr Byrne said he was referred to a tribunal by the Office of Local Government over misconduct claims.
On Monday he said it was an attempt to intimidate him into not speaking to the inquiry which is scrutinising the OLG’s involvement in the grants to local councils.
Mr Deegan has reportedly emailed council staff this week flagging his resignation and that he was seeking the assistance of the United Services Union to negotiate his contract termination.
Anthony Albanese’s office was contacted for comment but did not respond.
NEWS TIPS: ANTON.ROSE@NEWS.COM.AU